


For Whom The Bell Tolls

by WolfAndHound_Archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Drama, Ficlet, Second War with Voldemort, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-06
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-05-18 14:34:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5931889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolfAndHound_Archivist/pseuds/WolfAndHound_Archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>WIP</p>
            </blockquote>





	For Whom The Bell Tolls

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Lassenia, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Wolf and Hound](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Wolf_and_Hound), which was created to make stories posted to the Sirius_Black_and_Remus_Lupin Yahoo! mailing list easier to find. However, even though I still love the fandom, I am no longer active in it and do not have the time to maintain it. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in December 2015. I posted an announcement with Open Doors, but we may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on the [Wolf and Hound collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/wolfandhound/profile).

"Sirius?"

Remus Lupin quietly shut the front door behind him, his whispered summons falling through the eerie silence of the hall to rattle desultorily against the aged floorboards. He began to shrug from his large, shabby overcoat, intending to drape it from the gnarled coatrack, when a sudden banshee wail shattered the quietude and the draperies hanging from the wall flew aside to reveal a portrait.

"HALF-BREED, NO GOOD SPINELESS BANE OF UPSTANDING WIZARD-KIND! YOUR FATHER WAS A DESPICABLE TRAITOR TO HIS BLOOD FOR ALLOWING YOU TO LIVE-"

"Yes," Lupin murmured to himself beneath her charming invective, "and my mother smelt of elderberry..."

"Shut UP, you foul witch!" A tall, dark shadow loomed and staggered into the dim half-light of the hallway, grabbing at the hangings violently and wrenching them shut against a screaming protest.

Lupin blinked and then calmly finished removing his overcoat. The dark shadow muttered a few well-chosen-and dead-accurate-insults under his breath and turned his profile into the flickering candlelight from a sconce on the wall. Piercing silver eyes studied Lupin from the shadows of their deep-set sockets, further concealed by a ragged fringe of black bangs.

"You remember my charming mother, Remus?" Sirius inquired lightly, his breathing still a bit ragged from his headlong rush down the stairs.

"Oh, yes. I see she's as thrilled as ever to have me coming round." There might have been a hint of bitterness in his tone, just for a moment. The first-and last-time Lupin had been in the house at 12 Grimmauld Place, he had come for Sirius' birthday during the Christmas holidays of sixth year. It had been no secret to the Marauders that the Blacks were a bunch of right bastards, but they had been more involved in Sirius' life than the Dursleys were in Harry's, and the Potters couldn't just allow him to spend the holidays with them. So, Lupin had come, perhaps hoping to provide his friend with a bulwark against the harsh tide of his family. It had been a colossal mistake. Far from being thrilled with the presence of a school chum from another old family, the Blacks had been horrified that Sirius chose to bring home "that tainted Gallic dog."

Suffice it to say, Lupin and Sirius hadn't stayed long before shadowing the doorway for the last time, their backs to the twisted serpent knocker and Regulus' stony young face peering between the drapes, facing west and the Potters' rambling Exeter manor. In the soft light of memory, Lupin could almost fancy that the weary bus-ride had truly been the harrowing adventure implicit in the sparse words "ran away from home."

Sirius winced slightly, perhaps remembering that evening as Lupin was, perhaps not. He reached for Lupin's bag, callused fingers brushing the back of his hand before closing firmly upon the suitcase handle. "Let me," he said softly, turning away before Lupin's searching amber eyes could make more than a cursory examination of his expression.

Their footsteps echoed hollowly on the floorboards, increasing the sense of abandonment emanating from the entire house. Lupin turned his face away from the gruesome elf-heads mounted on the walls, disgusted as he had been in the past by wizards who could shun an ancient line of mislabeled "Dark Creatures" while exercising such barbaric practices in their own home. It was no wonder this place had sat abandoned in the years since Katerina Black's demise-with Sirius in Azkaban and unable to inherit, who among his remaining benign relatives would **want** this horrid hellhole?

He realized he had spoken aloud to that effect when Sirius gave a hollow laugh and shook his head, raven's-wing black hair glinting in the candlelight on the staircase. "No one wanted it, of course. And so it was left to me." He pushed open a door along the second floor hallway, revealing a shabby but relatively clean bedchamber. "I wanted to torch the damned thing, you know."

"Rather poetic justice, though, don't you think? Using it as our headquarters?" Lupin took a few steps forward, watching Sirius set his suitcase down on the bedspread and collect himself. The taller man turned and smiled a trifle tensely at him, silver eyes dark and unsettled.

"Thank you, Remus. You, at least, understand."

Lupin stepped forward again, reaching up to hesitantly touch his friend's face, holding him still as he searched his eyes. "I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner, Sirius. I know being in this place is painful for you." Sirius sighed and closed his eyes, beginning to lose some of the strange tension that had plagued him since Remus showed up. "Are you alright?"

It was mildly startling to feel Sirius' arms suddenly embrace him, but far from unwelcome. Lupin eagerly closed the distance remaining between them and wrapped his own arms around his friend's still-prominent ribs. "Shh..." he murmured soothingly, not really intending to silence any sounds of pain-even had there been any. Sirius remained quiet, his lips seeking the lined skin of Remus' brow and pressing there warmly. "I'm here now, and regardless of where I'll be tomorrow or the next day on into eternity, that's all that matters at the moment."

Sirius nodded, his hair brushing Remus' cheek, and only held him tighter.


End file.
